Just for fun
What the World Eats
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What kinds of foods do people eat around the world? How much does it typically cost? These are questions that TIME Magazine tackles in an online feature entitled What the World Eats
In a slideshow, you can see various families from around the world posing with presumably a week’s worth of groceries. You can find out what their favourite foods are, and how much it all typically costs. Fascinating! Apparently this is from the new book Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel.
I mention this because not only is Mexico included, our home city is in there – Cuernavaca! Watch for it. Not the different types of food (amount of vegetables, breads, milk, etc), and the cost compared to other countries.
via: Our Mission
Shari on Canada
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Now that you have the basic story about Shari’s visit to Canada in December, I told you I’d share some of her impressions. Here are a few things that Shari particularly noticed during her visit:
- There are a lot of open spaces in Calgary compared to the Cuernavaca/Mexico City area. The streets are wide, the parking spots are wide, the yards are big. Of course, she was visiting one of the largest (geographically) cities in North America, and it only has a million people – Calgary is unusually "spread out".
- As compared to our house, the hot water lasts forever – no rushing to get your shower done! And you can even take baths (bath tubs are rare in Mexico).
- Things were very organized at the Calgary airport. In Mexico City, you were supposed to "just know" that you had to fill out such-and-such a form. And her departure gate was changed three times! At the last change she had to cross the entire airport (a 20 minute walk/sprint) and got to the gate 15 minutes before departure – fortunately, the plane left late…
- You can put TP in the toilet in Canada (in Mexico there are issues with personal and city sewage systems – hence the little garbage cans beside each toilet).
- The feeling of cold weather was weird (it was around 0C/32F in Calgary), and so was the feeling of actually being able to warm up inside!
- You can speak English in Canada, which is handy because we speak it pretty well. However, Shari noticed that Spanish kept coming out of her boca unintentionally – especially the "polite" words (Gracias, mande?, disculpe…).
- There is so much selection – so many different brands in the stores! Of course, this needs to be qualified – we probably have a greater selection of many things in Cuernavaca (yogourt drinks, sweet breads, chili peppers), while they have a greater selection of certain things in Canada (maple syrup, mittens, Corner Gas DVDs). But still, walking into a grocery store was overwhelming. And going into Toys "R" Us — unbelievable. Why do kids need all this STUFF??
- When you ask for water in Canada, sometimes people give you water right from the tap!
From Salsa to Pears to Pumpkin
Today I made salsa. It was so easy, it begs the question – why didn’t I do it before? Well, it won’t be the last time. It was yummy.
Two of the ingredients were from our very own garden – limes and chillies. We have great little chillies – I made this big container of salsa and only three tiny chillies, and it was nice and hot (actually, some was quite hot and some not at all – I should have ground them up a little more!).
So for our mid-afternoon meal (comida) I made some chicken quesadillas and we were all set.
And get this. I discovered more food growing in our garden. We have pears. Big ones.
Pears and soursop
I know, it’s been over 10 months and I’m still discovering more things in our garden? I guess I’m no William Carey.
This afternoon, though, we did something a bit more Canadian. We happened to discover some pumpkins (very expensive pumpkins) that had been brought in for Hallowe’en. Since we can’t buy canned pumpkin here, we bought some small pumpkins in order to make pumpkin pie.
My mouth is watering – we haven’t made pumpkin pie from scratch (ie not canned pumpkin) since early in our marriage when we had a garden. Boy, those were good pies.
Anyway, we cooked (just finishing up now) the pumpkin and washed the seeds to eat later.
This coming weekend we’re having some friends over for Thanksgiving dinner, so we thought it would be a good time to splurge. If they don’t like pumpkin pie, no problem – I know someone who can eat it for them…
See? Chillies, pumpkin, pears – lots to be thankful for!
Passion in the garden
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I’m still making discoveries in our garden. I’m still finding plants that I didn’t know were there (see some of the plants in our garden in this ever-expanding photo album). Fortunately, every once in a while our landlords come over and give me some tips.
This week I discovered a couple more things that were there all along. Better yet, Lisandro and Lupita (our landlords) gave me some tips on how to use some of these things. For example, this fruit to the right. Do you know what it is?
Well, I didn’t know until today. I wrote down the name of it on my hand, then promptly washed my hands and lost it (let that be a lesson to you all). But now I know – it’s maracuyá, otherwise known as passion fruit. It grows on a vine, and I can be excused for not noticing it because I can only reach the fruit from our roof.
So here’s what you do. First, you cut it open – it’s orange with lots of black seeds.
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Great. Now, scoop them out and stick it seeds and all into the blender. Whizzzz whizzzz whirrrr whirrrrr, add some water, whizzzz whizzzzz whirrrrr whirrrrrrrr…. then strain it into a pitcher. This time I added about 1.5L (about .4 US Gallons) of water, and a touch of honey, and there you are. Fresh passion fruit juice!
It’s an old vine, so apparently it’s not producing a lot of fruit. Still, we have enough for a few pitchers here.
Did you know that the word "passion" here refers to Christ’s passion? Learn more about how the passion flower got its name here.
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I also found out that we have a soursop tree. I knew we had the tree (I nursed it carefully during dry season), I just didn’t know what it was. It seems to be producing now.
Anyway, there’s lots of food in our garden – I just have to figure out ways to use it!
Lupita also gave me a recipe for salsa, so I’m ready to make some – in the blender, again. Yum – just what we need around here. Those are pretty hot little chilies – should make a good fresh salsa. Feel free to stop by and share!
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob,
whose hope is in the Lord his God,
who made heaven and earth,
the sea, and all that is in them,
who keeps faith forever;
who executes justice for the oppressed,
who gives food to the hungry.
Psa 146:5-7
